Sewing machine needle



1968 J. A LUTHER 3,397,660

SEWING MACHINE NEEDLE Filed Aug. 27, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet l /1& /15 fz m 16% 25 21 22 :1? 'gfi 527 25 I F .2 INVENTOR.

5 :gguus A. LUTHER ATTORNEY Aug. 20, 1968 J. A. LUTHER SEWING MACHINE NEEDLE 2 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Aug. 27, 1965 fix INVENTOR. guuus ALUTHER fl /iw/ ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,397,660 SEWING MACHINE NEEDLE Julius A. Luther, 5422 Roseland Mound, Cincinnati, Ohio 45212 Filed Aug. 27, 1965, Ser. No. 483,064 4 Claims. (Cl. 112-222) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The needle herein utilizes two thread openings or eyes each for a thread and maintaining the same suitably spaced from one another so that no twisting of the threads takes place during use. This needle may, therefore, be used with substantially all sewing machines for effecting plain sewing or embroidery sewing as desired.

This invention relates to improvements in needles and particularly to improvements in a Sewing Machine Needle. Sewing machine needles, in and of themselves, are well-known but unless sewing machine needles as heretofore known are properly manufactured considerable difficulty may be experienced.

An object of the present invention, is therefore, the provision of a sewing machine needle, while apparently little modified beyond those heretofore known and used, that gives surprising results in the art of sewing as heretofore well-known.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a sewing machine needle that accomplishes the foregoing object and at the same time provides a needle that can accomplish work from a sewing machine heretofore unknown.

A further and specific object of the present invention is the provision of a sewing machine needle having a pinrality of, two or three, eyes, or thread holes, upwardly of its point, instead of the single eye as up to now has been known and used.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention should be readily apparent by reference to the following specification considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof and it is to be understood that any modifications may be made in the exact structural details there shown and described, within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from or exceeding the spirit of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a sewing machine needle, a number of times enlarged from its normal size, disclosing the improvements of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the needle of FIG. 1 as seen from the right hand side thereof with the lower portion of the needle through the eyes and point in crosssection.

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the lower end of FIG. 1 several times enlarged over the size thereof as illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-section of the portion of the needle illustrated in FIG. 3 as seen from line 4-4 on FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a transverse sectional view of the needle transversely thereof as seen from line 55 on FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view through the needle transversely thereof on line 6-6 on FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the needle quite similar to the view in FIG. 4 with however two sewing threads on the needle and in operative position with respect thereto.

FIG. 8 is a transverse sectional view of the needle with a pair of threads in operative position with respect thereto as seen from line 8-8 on FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view of 3,397,660 Patented Aug. 20, 1968 the lower part of a modified needle, one having three eyes or thread holes, instead of two.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of work that may be done with the sewing machine needle when threaded as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 11 is a plan view of work similar to that in FIG. 10 showing a slightly different pattern from FIG. 10 but with the needle threaded as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of FIG. 11, showing the reverse or underside of the fabric, cloth, on which the stitching of said FIG. 11 is made.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of still another form of stitching that can be produced with the needle of the present invention.

Throughout the several views of the drawings similar reference characters are employed to denote the same or similar parts.

In practice and as heretofore known sewing machines have been produced having a mechanism operable either manually, by a persons hand or foot, or power operated through a propelling engine, such as an electric power operated motor. Each of these machines includes a vertically reciprocal member or head with which a needle such as disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 2 is employed, with said needles as heretofore used or employed, however, provided with but a single eye or opening upwardly of its point and through which the sewing thread is disposed.

The said thread is on a device whether formed of wood, metal or any other material, and called a spool centrally apertured to be disposed on an upstanding pin from which the thread is fed to the needle eye.

The thread also passes through an adjustable, yieldable, tensioning mechanism which places a certain amount of tension or resistance on the thread restraining it from axial movement except as such movement was effected by the operation of the machine and its needle in forming a stitch with respect to one or more pieces of' material, fabric, cloth, and the like.

In cooperation with the operation of the needle through the vertical reciprocation of the machine needle head use is made of what is known as a shuttle, normally not seen during the operation of the machine.

In other words in machine sewing, as heretofore known, use is made of two threads, one on a spool and passing through the needle eye, and the other on the shuttle, which also includes a type of spool known as a bobbin. In operation the vertical reciprocation of the machine needle head is timed with the relatively horizontal operation of the shuttle and whereby the thread of the needle is projected below the material being sewn upon to cooperate with the thread of the shuttle bobbin and which, in effect, ties the needle thread beneath the fabric for thereby providing a stitch visible above the material, or a stitch for connecting two or more pieces of material to one another, or a stitch for securing portions of a material above and/or below the surface of the material through which the needle passes.

Specifically, and referring to the drawings as there shown, use is made of a needle indicated in its entirety by the reference numeral 15 and with said needle having for the greater portion of its length a relatively narrow body portion 16 which is preferably, substantially, circular in transverse section. Upwardly of the said body portion 16 the needle is provided with an enlarged shank portion 17 and through which the needle is secured to the sewing machine vertically reciprocating head. Below the said central or body portion 16 the needle 15 is provided with a point portion 18.

The said needle point portion 18, includes the point, per se, 19 and the portion of the needle upwardly of the point 19 which is somewhat fiat to have somewhat outwardly extending opposed sides 20 and 21 providing therebetween particularly on one side thereof, a channel 22 with a base 23 and through which is formed apertures or eyes 24 and 25.

Extending throughout the length of the needle central or body portion 16, from the securing shank 17 to the point portion 18, is a groove 26 terminating in the needle point portion channel or chamber 22 on one side of said needle portion, and, actually, from the base of which channel or chamber extends above noted needle eyes or apertures 24 and to the other side of the needle point portion. The point portion or end of the needle is, supra, indicated in its entirety by the reference numeral 18 and has on its reverse side from the channel or chamber 22 a second channel or chamber 27, see FIG. 5-. The base of the said second channel 27 having, similar to the channel or chamber 22, a base of a length and width for substantially the entire vertical and transverse dimensions thereof and, as will later be made clear, room for two diameters of the thread being employed.

In this connection attention is called to FIG. 7 and which is provided in and through the groove 26 with, for want of a better description, the front face of the needle with two threads 28 and 29 which are disposed upon one another in the direction of extent of the said groove 26 outwardly from the axis of the needle. The thread 28 passes through the upper needle opening or eye 24 while the thread 29 passes through the lower needle opening or eye 25. The said threads, while the needle is being axially pushed or driven through fabric, indicated in FIG. 7 by the double lines 28a, are held in the groove 26 and channel 22 as above set forth, and at the same time the same threads, located as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, are side by side in the pocket 27 for the distance of the said pocket or chamber 27 whereupon the said threads are maintained in side by side relation but upwardly of the needle eye end and no longer in a channel or groove as none is required.

As noted above this position of the threads with respect to the needle, shown in solid lines in FIG. 7, is obtained and maintained during the downward movement of the needle and when the lower terminus of the downward needle movement is reached the reciprocating head of the sewing machine reverses and carries with it the needle and through the thread opening or eyes of the needle the said threads 28 and 29.

Substantially immediately upon reversal of movement of the machine needle the thread 28 forms a loop, indicated in dash and dot lines at 30 in FIG. 7 while the thread 29 at the same time forms a loop 31. At about the point of the cross lines 32 in FIG. 7 is the shuttle thread from the bobbin carried thereby. At this time the said shuttle and bobbin are moved to inject the bobbin thread within the loops 30 and 31. The operation of the parts, needle reciprocating head and relatively horizontal movement of the shuttle, are such that the shuttle and bobbin thread is maintained within the loop until the needle reciprocating member reaches the upper end of its position and at which point the threads from the needle and the thread from the shuttle bobbin are locked on one another to prevent disassociation without the cutting of the threads 28 and 29 and the bobbin thread.

The continuous operation of the machine forms successive stitches as above set forth and in a matter of time, much faster than can be described in words or read.

The lower end of the needle central body portion 16, just above the point portion 18, the said needle central body portion 16 is provided with an inwardly, arcuately extending portion 41 for thereby, see FIGS. 4 and 7, particularly FIG. 7, providing a space between the return portions of threads 28 and 29 and the needle central body portion; said relieved portion being identified by the reference numeral 42.

It is at the upper end of this relieved portion 42 where the bobbin hook operates, such as, as above noted, at the point of the crossed lines 32.

As illustrated in the drawings, and most clearly in FIG. 4, the base 26a of the groove 26 is below the surface 43 of the needle point portion openings separator 44 which separates the thread openings or eyes 24 and 25 from one another. These levels of the base 26a of the groove 26 and the outer surface 43 of the eyes or holes separator 44 is indicated in FIG. 4 by the reference numeral A.

As seen in FIG. 7, with this construction the threads 28 and 29 are maintained in super-imposed relation with the said thread 28 running into and through the eye 24 While the thread 29, riding on the thread 28, is in such position that it rides on the said outer surface 43 of the eyes or holes separator 44 in substantially a continuous line and runs into the opening or eye 25.

It should also be noted that the eye separator has a dimension in the direction of the vertical axis of the needle, of at least two diameters of the thread 28, and in practice, due to the clearance between the walls of the thread opening or eye 24 and the diameter of the thread itself, added to the vertical dimension of the eyes separator, this distance is somewhat in excess of two thread diameters, or the combined diameters of the threads 28 and 29.

In the use of a sewing machine the bobbin hook entering in the space 42 of the needle plus the space between the thread loop 30 and needle picks up the said thread and then rotates the same on the bobbin while the stitch is being completed. In view of the fact that the threads 28 and 29, as further illustrated in their loops 30 and 31, are spaced from one another as above set forth, the bobbin hook will pick up the thread 29, particularly its loop 31, at a point beyond the thread 28 and its loop 30, so that the said threads will not be twisted on one another but will remain as separate threads throughout the stitch forming time. Obviously, when the stitch has been completed, in so far as the bobbin and its hook is concerned, the hook is fully retracted from the thread loops and the said loops secured or locked in position by the bobbin thread.

As shown in FIG. 9 the same situation with respect to the thread opening or eyes is concerned with the said threads spaced in overlapping layers one above the other separated by the thread thickness.

The thread opening or eye 24 of the needle disclosed herein is located at the normal point or place where the single thread opening or eye of the heretofore known needle would be located above the point 19 of the needle; however, while the second thread opening or eye 25 is located below the position of the original normal thread opening or eye 24 but above the point. By this construction there is provided a needle for use with sewing machines as now, and heretofore known, and may be employed for simultaneously sewing with two threads instead of one. One place where this type of seam or stitching may be employed is in the formation of buttonholes and which hole, per se, is out after the finishing seams have been laid down. A further use for a two thread needle and sewing mechanism is in machine embroidery and in which the said threads 28 and 29 may be of dissimilar color and/ or structure if desired.

It is in connection with the latter use of the needle of the present invention that the embroidered patterns in FIGS. 10 through 13 was employed and with the shuttle bobbin thread beneath and binding the two embroidery threads as illustrated in FIG. 10.

It should be noted that certain sewing machines are provided with two and sometimes three needles which can be used with a thread in one only of the needles. This type of sewing machine is provided with a cam mechanism whereby either one of the two or three needles, both of the two needle machine or either two of the three needle machine, or the third needle of the three needle machine may be employed. Unless these various needles are positioned very accurately through, for example, two cam adjusting mechanisms, certain of the loops could be missed by or, fail to have passed therethrough the bobbin thread and wherefore either of the loops of the needles, such as the loops 30 and 31 in FIG. 7 would wind up as a missed stitch. The missing of a loop as just above noted, will result in what is known as a skipped stitch, that is, the thread on the upper face of the material being sewn on will not be secured in position even though a thread is laid down on the said upper surface of the material by the needle and a similar thread is positioned beneath the material and which threads are subsequently secured to one another by the bobbin thread after the skipping of one, two, three or more stitches.

A needle for use with such a machine including a selectable position of, as noted above, any one of three positions can be made including the principals of the present invention, and in which case the needle would be provided with an eye or opening therein below the eye or opening 25, so that, the uppermost eye, such as 24, is in the normal position for the machine whose shuttle is particularly positioned and adjusted to cooperate with the upper eye and which shuttle would then readily pass through the loop from any one or all of the three needle eyes or thread openings, regardless of which is employed and positioned by the sewing machine cam. Such a needle having three thread openings, or eyes, is illustrated in FIG. 9 with the thread eye or opening identified by the reference numeral 33 and below the thread opening or eye 25 of the needle of FIGS. 1 and 2.

As shown in FIG. 11, the fabric or cloth 34 has a stitch formed by a sewing machine with the needle as illustrated in FIG. 7 and with the said threads 28 and 29 being of dissimilar color or even texture, that is, one thread of a flexible metallic material while the other is of the usual normal material and the bobbin thread being of a third color or even metallic.

Specifically and as shown in FIG. 11, the reference numeral 35 indicates one of the threads while the numeral 36 represents the second of said threads which are associated with the needle. The bobbin thread is indicated by the reference numeral 37 and the machine had been adjusted to bring the said shuttle thread 37 to be visible as a point to the transverse or embroidery stitches 35 and 36 on the upper surface of the said fabric 34.

FIG. illustrates the fact that the sewing machine had been adjusted so that the material 34 has on its upper surface the two threads 35 and 36 and which are the threads 28 and 29, supra, with however the bobbin thread 37 not brought to the surface or upper side of the cloth or material 34, as is illustrated in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 illustrates the underneath side of the material or cloth 34 and further and particularly illustrates the bobbin thread 37. As shown herein the bobbin thread 37 is not brought to the upper or right side of the fabric as in FIG. 11 but instead holds the corner of the threads 35 and 36 on the said upper surface of the cloth or fabric 34.

The illustration in FIG. 13 is that of a still further form or modification of the stitch obtainable through a two thread opening or eye needle, or even a three thread opening or eye needle. As shown in said FIG. 13 the fabric 38 has on its upper surface two threads, relatively identified by the reference numerals 39 and 40. The said embroidery and reinforced stitch on FIG. 13 has the thread 39 extending angularly to itself on successive stitches as effected by the machine, that is, every other stitch parallels one another in angular directions, that is, every other stitch extends in the same angular direction while the intermediate stitches extend in the angular opposite direction.

In this connection the thread or stitch 40 is what is known as a skip stitch deliberately effected by the adjustment of the machine. In other words, the second or thread stitch 40 is engaged with the bobbin thread for anchoring or holding purposes only at the points of the alternate stitches. In other words, and as seen in said FIG. 13, the thread 39 forms adjacent inverted substantially V-shaped stitches with the outer ends of the alternate stitches engaged by or adjacent to the thread 40 except that the stitches of the thread 40 are twice the length of the stitches of the thread 39, or in other words, the point of overlay of adjacent angularly outwardly disposed stitches is also the point where the thread 40 is secured and with the intermediate stitch removed since it is at the other end of the stitches of thread 39.

The seam provided by the stitches of the threads 39 and 40 in FIG. 13 provides a perfect arrangement for making, what is known as, a buttonhole. In other words, two adjacent rows of stitches as provided by thread 40 with each row of stitches having radially outwardly thereof the stitches provided by the thread 39 provides a perfect reinforced buttonhole.

Any number of advantages are obtainable by the use of the needle of the present invention whether it has two holes or eyes or three holes or eyes, each for aseparate sewing thread, whether the said threads are identical in material or color, dissimilar in color, or dissimilar in color and material. Such advantages including seams and embroidery having double or triple strength without using the same amount of thread as would be used if a single eye needle were employed and, obviously, the running of the machine, the operation of the shuttle and machine, is at least one-half of that necessary when a single eye needle is employed.

The beauty and standoutness of the design with the said two or three differently colored threads is of considerable advantage.

It has also been found that the stitching or sewing of fabrics of a heavier nature or thicker material, which has the tendency to skip when the single thread opening or eye needle is employed, may be overcome by putting the said heavier thread in the lower thread opening or eye of the needle of the present invention so that the bobbin thread, obviously of a weight corresponding to the heavier weight of the stitch thread, can be fore readily inserted through the thread loop below the fabric or material and thereby prevent stitch skipping and the resultant heavier and longer lasting seam.

From the foregoing it will now be appreciated that with the use of a needle having two or three thread openings or eyes the sewing machine as presently known and used has its range of operation very materially extended.

What is claimed is:

1. A sewing machine needle comprising a central body portion of a given diameter, a thickened attaching portion upwardly of said central body portion, a point portion at the lower end of said central body portion, said point portion having an upper end equal to the dimension of said central body portion and tapering to a point, said central body portion at approximately the lower end thereof having an inwardly extending arcuate relieved section, said central body portion having on the side thereof opposite said relieved section a vertical groove extending at least the length of said body portion and extending into said point portion, said point portion having an upper thread opening the width of which is substantially equal to twice the diameter of a first thread to be used therewith and located at about the juncion of said point portion and body portion, a lower thread opening of a width equal to said upper opening width and located at a distance at least equal to its width below said upper opening, said groove extending slightly below said lower opening and having a width equal to one-half the width of one of said openings and a depth equal to twice its width whereby a second thread equal in diameter to said first thread and adapted to lie in said groove with said first thread will be superposed thereon before extending through said lower thread opening.

2. A sewing machine needle as set forth in claim 1, having a separator between said thread openings, said separator having a flat surface outwardly spaced from the bottom of said groove a distance equal to the width of said groove thereby to be parallel with the outer surface of said first thread adapted to lie in said groove and adapted to maintain said second thread parallel with said first thread before entering said lower opening.

3. A sewing machine needle as set forth in claim 1, said needle central body portion immediately below said relieved section and on the Same side thereof having formed therein a channel portion of a width equal to the width vof one of said openings whereby said first and second threads are adapted to pass upwardly from the needle portion thread openings in side by side relationship.

4. A sewing machine needle as set forth in claim 1, said needle central body portion immediately below said relieved section and on the same side thereof having 15 8 ship, said openings having a flat surface outwardly spaced from the bottom .ofsaid groove a distance equal to the width of said groove thereby to be parallel with the outer surface of said first thread adapted to lie in saidg'ro ove and also adapted to maintain said second thread parallel with said first thread before entering said lower opening References Cited 8/1965 Great Britain.

RICHARD J. SCANLAN, JR-., Primary Examinera 

